Assessment of right ventricular function in patients with congestive heart failure by echocardiographic automated boundary detection

In conclusion, our findings demonstrate that right ventricular function in patients with chronic heart failure due to dilated cardiomyopathy can be reliably assessed by an echocardiographic ABD technique, which is superior to conventional manual echocardiographic methods. This technique, providing a real-time display of right ventricular function without exposure to radiation, offers important advantages when compared with radionuclide ventriculography. For these reasons, we believe that in patients with heart failure, the ABD technique will have an expanding role in noninvasively assessing right ventricular function.